QUANTITATIVE DISCOMANOMETRY AND ACUTE DISK INJURIES - AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL

Quantitative discomanometry is a study of intradiscal pressure changes during quantitative injection. The purpose of this study was to deter mine if correlations exist between discomanometric parameters and disk injuries. Sixteen three-vertebrae porcine spine segments, with two in tervening disks, were subjected to standardized high-speed trauma. The injuries were documented by a radiographic injury score (RIS), using pre- and posttrauma lateral radiographs. An anatomic injury score (AIS ) also was obtained, based on an anatomic dissection and mid-sagittal plane cuts of the frozen specimen. Before the cutting, each of the dis ks was subjected to quantitative discomanometry, providing pressure/vo lume curves. Significant negative correlations were found between the RIS and the maximum pressure sustained (R = -0.60, p < O.OO1), and pre ssure/volume slope (R = -0.60, p < 0.001). Similar relationships were found between the AIS and the maximum pressure (R = -0.71, p < 0.001), and pressure/volume slope (R = -0.63, p < 0.001). This study suggests that quantitative discomanometry can be used to quantify disk injurie s. Because the intradiscal pressurization mimics the physiology with w eight bearing, its use as a measure of integrity of the end-plate-annu lus-end-plate enclosure might be justified.